Flying High

My middle son has developed a love of planes over the last few years. Where once he loved everything to do with trains, he now has that love for planes and then some. I was reading the newspaper a few weeks ago and found out that a local festival was planing a fly-in of some vintage aircraft. The purpose was to allow the public to touch them and check them out. I also learned that kids ages 8-17 would be able to sign up for a free plane ride via the Young Eagles program. Needless to say my kiddo was thrilled by the possibility.

We headed out early, just N11 and I, and made a day of it. We arrived just in the nick of time. In that we missed the start of the parade so we weren't stuck in traffic and only ended up waiting about 15 minutes for his Young Eagles flight. He was also back on the ground before the war birds arrived.

I sent my camera up with him and he was great about snapping photos. Overall I think he took about 40 in the 20 minutes he was in the air. The plane they went up in held six people so they took five young people, including N11, on the flight, but they all had window seats!

A look at the runway as they took off.

A local lake.

A view of the local area.

I must say that the war birds arrived in style....

It was a Japanese Zero and a B-25.

The Zero taxing in.

The B-25 taxing in.

We were able to look and touch most of the planes that were here. We talked with the Civil Air Patrol reps. Now N11 is counting the days until he can sign up. He thinks signing up for CAP on his birthday would be perfect!

We waited in line for about 20 minutes for N11 to be able to pop his head up into the back of the B-25. They were letting people take a look around inside. They also had the bomb doors open and you could look inside there as well. 

We did miss the P-51 that arrived about 10 minutes after we left. 

However, N11 deemed this "the best day ever!" We bought ice-cream while we were at the fly-in. I also bought him a model of a F-15. We then went out to lunch at Pizza Hut.

I love the fact that he has such a passion for planes and that I was able to help grow that just a tiny bit today.